


Deal Against the Devil

by WotanAnubis



Category: Magic: The Gathering
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-26
Updated: 2016-04-26
Packaged: 2018-06-04 16:49:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6666517
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WotanAnubis/pseuds/WotanAnubis
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Thalia sets out to forge an unlikely alliance.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Deal Against the Devil

**Author's Note:**

> I really hope the Werewolves get to be the "Good Guys" in _Eldritch Moon_. The green Werewolves anyway. I mean, I hope the Werewolves have a somewhat prominent role in the story at least.

Thalia wondered if this was the most foolish thing she'd ever done. It was certainly up there. She walked, one hand on the pommel of her sword, under the suffocating shadows of the trees all around her. She picked her way carefully - there was no path. Barely an animal track strewn by leaves, fallen branches, twisted roots and thorny bushes. She faltered and stumbled repeatedly. No doubt her passage would be easier if she just took her hand off her sword and use her arm to help her balance.

But taking her hand off her weapon would be even more foolish than this whole errand already was.

Ahead of her walked a young woman in a pale green robe adorned with white twigs. She didn't falter and stumble. Instead she walked quite normally along the track without pause. She was Thalia's guide and she was a lie.

Nobody dressed in robes could walk so easily through a thick forest like this. But that wasn't even most obvious clue. She'd presented herself as a calm and serene woman. Spiritual, even. But there was only one kind of true spirituality and the young woman did not seem to have an icon of Avacyn anywhere on her. Hers was an obviously pagan faith, worshiping trees and birds as though they could possibly save a human soul. But of course, she wasn't human, was she?

And the really wretched fact - the reason Thalia stumbled through these predator's woods - was that the girl's heresy was... not acceptable, but... tolerable. These days, people used their seeming devotion to the true faith to cloak their taste for cruelty. Some in service of demons, others in service of...

Well...

"How much further?" Thalia asked.

"Not far," said the girl. Her voice was as calm and serene as the rest of her. One could easily imagine her taking care of orphans out of the sheer goodness of her heart. One could almost forget she was a monster.

The trees soon cleared a little and Thalia and her guide stepped into a very small clearing. A suggestion of sunlight made the grass seem a little greener than it was everywhere else and a hint of cloud could be seen above the trees.

Someone was already here. A woman dressed in mis-matched clothes trimmed with fur sat atop a fallen tree. Her face was scarred, her red hair ended in white, her eyes were distressingly bright. She smiled faintly, as though idly amused by something.

Thalia's guide bowed politely. "My Lady. She's here."

"So I see," said the woman. "Thank you. Please give us some privacy, would you?"

The girl hesitated. "Is that wise?"

"No," the woman replied. "But do so anyway."

The girl nodded, turned and walked away. As she passed Thalia she gave her a dark look promising violence if something were to go wrong. Thalia gave her a completely impassive glance in return.

"Have a seat," said the woman, gesturing to a large rock.

"I'd rather stand," said Thalia.

"After your walk through the woods? I doubt it. I promise you, nobody's going to jump you when your guard's down."

"I'd still rather stand."

"As you wish," said the woman. "I suppose I shouldn't've expect anything else from Thalia, Guardian of Thraben, Restorer of Avacyn and, I believe, found the Order of Saint Traft."

"So you know who I am," said Thalia.

"We wouldn't be talking otherwise."

"And you," said Thalia, "are Arlinn Kord. An Archmage of Goldnight until the beast ate your soul. After the slaughter you disappeared for a while. When you came back, you took command of a very large pack of werewolves and claimed territory in the Ulvenwald."

"Quite so," said Arlinn. "Well, now that we've been properly introduced, why are you here?"

Thalia hesitated. She knew why she was here. Had known if it for a while now. But she'd never voiced the thought. Had barely even put words around it in her own mind. It was impossible. It went completely against everything she'd believed her whole life. But it was still true.

"Would it be easier if I said it?" Arlinn asked.

"Avacyn's gone insane," Thalia said flatly.

"I'm afraid so," said Arlinn, somehow managing to seem sympathetic.

"The Church has lost its way," Thalia continued. "Rather than try to reason with the angels or stand against them, it instead founded the Inquisition and joined in the 'purification'." She shook her head. "It was better when the vampires and the- the vampires preyed on us. It wasn't us who dragged people away to torture chambers and the guillotine."

"Oh?" said Arlinn, her eyes narrowing. "I recall quite a few ghoulcallers and stitchers that are human. And of course there are demon cults everywhere. You've always preyed on yourself."

"Alright," Thalia admitted. "But at least that kind thing was never sanctioned by the Church. Torturing the heresy out people was never holy, putting the torch to the pyre was never a sign of piety."

"Not when it was humans on the pyre, that is," said Arlinn.

Thalia ignored her. "The Lunarch Council has became as vile as the most depraved cabal of vampires. They must be stopped."

"The act in the Light of Avacyn, in obedience to Her commands."

"I know," said Thalia. Her heart clenched in pain at the words, but it was true.

"So. We have the vampires in their mansions, the werewolves in the forest, the necromancers and mad scientists in their castles along with creations, the cultists and demons lurking in the shadows and now even the pious clergy and their angelic mistresses in their holy sanctuaries. You're more outnumbered than you've ever been."

"Which is why I'm here," said Thalia. "To discuss a... a truce."

"With me alone?" said Arlinn. "Do you think I rule every werewolf here?"

"Not yet," said Thalia. "But you've risen faster than any Alpha I've seen. And your werewolves are... different."

Arlinn smiled. "True. They're werewolves."

For a brief moment Thalia wondered what Arlinn by that, but quickly dismissed the thought. There were more important things to worry about.

"The vampires want to keep us as food and torture us for fun. The necromancers want us all to die for their experiments. The demons... well, I don't know what they want, but it can't be good. And the angels-"

"Avacyn," Arlinn interrupted.

"The angels want to burn the entire world clean. But werewolves... Werewolves don't particularly need to kill people. So here, there's room for compromise."

"What an efficient summary," Arlinn said. "Did you practise that?"

"Once or twice," Thalia admitted.

"And as part of this 'compromise', what would we get?"

"The Ulvenwald."

Arlinn shook her head. "Kessig."

"Don't be ridiculous."

"Really? Humans already have the whole of Innistrad, acting as though you have some kind of right to it. Wherever there's wood or stone, your villages and cities crowd the scenery. And where there isn't, you import wood and stone and build them anyway. You are _everywhere_. I don't think giving up a single province is too great a loss."

"And what will you do with Kessig?" Thalia asked.

"Live as ourselves," said Arlinn. "Which, for most of us, would mean finding ourselves first."

"And what guarantee do I have you'll stay in Kessig?"

"What guarantee do I have you'll stay out?"

Thalia and Arlinn stared at each, trapped in a stalemate of distrust. Of course, Arlinn was only pretending to be civilized, while just below her skin and savage beast waited to come roaring out. Then again, Thalia had any number of weapons hidden on her, each and every one edged with silver, fully prepared to kill anyone she met out here.

"Fine," said Thalia abruptly. "Have Kessig. If the angels have their way, the entire world will be cleansed and there'll nobody left to worry about anything. We'll have to deal with them first. After that, we'll see."

"After that, the real darkness will fall," said Arlinn.

"What do you mean by that?" said Thalia suspiciously.

"Nothing," said Arlinn. "It's not important yet. First things first."

Arlinn stood up. And changed. Fur sprouted everywhere, her teeth grew and sharpened, hands turned into claws. Within moments a great, brown werewolf stood in the faint sunlight. But even before Arlinn's transformation had finished, Thalia's silver-edged sword was out of its sheath and aimed directly at the werewolf's heart.

"I see," she breathed. "So this is how you rose to power so fast, is it?"

Arlinn growled and gave Thalia a sharp-toothed grin. She carefully extended her right claw. Thalia looked at it for a moment. Then comprehension dawned.

"Ah," she said.

Thalia sheathed her sword and shook hands with the beast.


End file.
